GOP plan: No more borrowing and no default

WASHINGTON – House Republicans hope to take the possibility of a government default on U.S. debt off the table in the impending fight in Congress and the White House over raising the debt ceiling.

Their plan is simple, to mandate that the government pays the national debt first from receipts, and then all other spending would come after that.

The federal debt currently stands at approximately $14.3 trillion, and the Treasury Department anticipates the debt limit will be reached sometime this spring. That has created political fisticuffs between conservatives who want to hold the line on the debt ceiling and liberals who want it raised and spend more.

Shock the Washington establishment by participating in the "No More Red Ink" campaign and shut down all new plans for bailouts, "stimulus" spending and even the funding for Obamacare.

According to the U.S. Bureau of the Public Debt, the Obama administration has added $3.6 trillion to the national debt since coming into office over two years ago. By contrast, it took the Bush administration seven years to achieve the same milestone.

Conservatives warn raising the debt ceiling would continue the nation on the path toward fiscal insolvency and toward a debt crisis not unlike those afflicting Greece, Spain, and Portugal.

The proposal is similar to one introduced earlier this year by Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey that would require the federal government to prioritize its debt payments such that payment on the national debt would receive priority over other obligations.

Toomey and his House compatriots such as Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock and Arizona freshman Republican Rep. David Schweikert contend the federal government has more than enough revenue to cover the national debt even if the debt ceiling is not raised.

The senator wrote in a January opinion piece that appeared in the Wall Street Journal that the U.S. Treasury has 6.5 percent of all projected revenues available to cover the debt and a further 67 percent of all projected revenues available to cover other government expenditures.

"Government takes in much more than it needs to service the debt," said Mattie Corrao, government relations director with Americans for Tax Reform.

The legislation, known as "The Full Faith and Credit Act," has received 81 cosponsors so far. The Republican Study Committee members had hoped to include the legislation in the continuing resolution, but were unable to do so.

"If [Treasury] Secretary Geithner's argument is that he doesn't want to do anything to destabilize markets, great, then let's put something through the process that will reassure the market," Schweikert said. "Well, we're gonna tell the markets that we're not going to do anything to damage their cash flow and the interest on it."

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke tacitly endorsed the Republican proposal during a February hearing where he said:

"Well, it would reduce the risk with the debt limit that is for sure. You haven't done that yet, of course. I would like to just comment that it would take some time for us to change our systems and computers and so on to make sure that we could change that prioritization, but doing that would reduce some of the risks associated with the debt limit."

Republicans charge that the administration is trying to play a cynical game of politics with the debt ceiling issue rather than confront the issue of spending and the debt headon.

"They are trying to engage in all of these fear tactics to try to get what they want," Corrao said.

Schweikert agrees, saying the Obama administration and its congressional allies don't want to lose the political leverage of fear and will do everything they can to obstruct passage.

"For a number of the administration's officials to run around like their hair is on fire lacks intellectual honesty," Schweikert said. "We don't want to be going into a decision-making environment where fear and propaganda about debt, and marketed fear is being used as a wedge for certain directions."

The GOP leadership has been silent on the proposal thus far, and Schweikert said that they would pay more attention to it as the debt ceiling vote approaches.

WND's Joseph Farah has organized the "No More Red Ink" campaign, a high-tech, grass-roots lobbying effort targeting House Republicans, who have the power to stop further borrowing in its tracks.

Farah says 2011 may represent America's last chance to change directions on reckless spending and borrowing policies, but it will take the public standing up to be counted. He points to a number of polls showing Americans opposed to increasing the debt limit by overwhelming numbers.

He said the House Republican majority has it within its own power, without any Democrats helping, to stop the borrowing and spending.

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